Ericsson Buys Telecom Biz of Chinese IT Firm

Ericsson may be cutting jobs in Sweden, but it's growing in China thanks to its acquisition of the telecom business of Sunrise Technology, announced on Monday. (See Ericsson to Cut 2,200 Swedish Jobs.)

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) said the purchase of Guangzhou, China-based Sunrise Technology's telecom business will boost its IT services capability in the region as around 1,000 of the service provider's employees join the Swedish equipment giant.

Ericsson plans to integrate the OSS/BSS company's telecom assets into its Global Services business unit by the second quarter of this year. After the deal -- terms for which were not announced -- is complete, Sunrise Technology will continue to exist as a separate entity serving industries outside of telecom.

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Ericsson says the Sunrise employees it's gaining are experts in IT consulting, systems integration for charging and billing systems, customer relationship management and business intelligence/analytics solutions, and application development and maintenance.

The vendor has been focused on cutting costs, but also growing its business in those areas it has deemed strategic, including IP networks, cloud, TV and media, OSS/BSS and industry and society. Sunrise will support its ambitions of becoming a global ICT leader, helping it target the fast-growing Chinese mobile market, where it says many operators are just beginning to replace their legacy IT systems with next-generation technologies. (See Ericsson Feels US Capex Squeeze in Q4.)

This is far from the first acquisition has made in the OSS/BSS space. The vendor acquired Telcordia in 2012, TeleOSS and Telcocell in 2013, GEOSS in 2014 and TimelessMIND earlier this year to bolster its status in the software business. (See Ericsson Buys TimelessMIND OSS Assets, Euronews: Ericsson Boasts IT Services Progress, Say Goodbye to Telcordia, Ericsson Closes Acquisition of TeleOSS and Ericsson Acquires Telcocell for BSS.)

Ericsson's share price climbed 1.9% to $12.89 Monday after the acquisition was announced.

— Sarah Thomas, , Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading